NB >>> I tend to dislike this judgemental approach to Glorantha --
>>>"Malkioni are Right, Stygians are Wrong".
Me>> No worse than "Lunars are Right, Orlanthi are Wrong" profounded by
>> some...
>The difference is, I don't try to write the game rules so as to support my
>polemical positions.
Why not? The game rules should be able to bear any polemical interpretation placed on them.
>Whereas writing off a whole culture -- "the Stygian city-states of Safelster
>have weak magic because they are Doing it Wrong" -- is something I always
>dislike.
That wasn't what was said.
Firstly the Stygians were said to worship God through the wrong methods. This makes no statement about the weakness of their magic and is on par with "The Lunars embrace Chaos - clearly Wrong! - - in worshipping the Goddess". The methods of the Carmanians or Surantyr's Henotheists are even more wrong than the Stygians yet none of them have weak magic.
The weakness of the Stygians' theistic magic was a seperate suggestion to explain among other things why the Stygians worship gods and still have a social order that reminds outsiders of Rokari castes (however the Castle Coast is a better parallel). If one can go into the local Orlanthi temple and get full strength magic, then what need is there to obey their annoited lords?
>Likewise, tarring major Gloranthan religions or philosophies as
>deliberately misleading or created with fraudulent intent -- "The
>Lunars are frauds! Wizards invented the Invisible God!"
Nobody has suggested either with respect to the Stygians. I made the explicit comparison with tantrism which inverts normal Hindu practices yet is neither deliberately misleading nor created with fraudulent intent.
>> Their theistic magic is weaker than the ordinary barbarians whom they
>> often have close (if unfortunate) contact with.
>Yes, but overall they are usually stronger, through a combination of *all*
>of their social, political and magical resources pitted against those of the
>barbarians, which cannot usually compete.
So what's the problem in observing that their theistic magic is weaker? Nobody will burst into tears if I point out that the average Malkioni has shit magic compared to their Orlanthi counterparts.
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